Kohlrabi's Comeback

by Carla Prieto

on 09/27/13 at 11:00 AM

Recently, my coworkers at Deja Brew
have been on a pickling parade. For the past week or so, they've been
experimenting with hot brines. The most recent batch of pickles included jalapeños,
and they were surprisingly not too hot since they hadn't been soaked for long
enough.

The pickles in a Sriracha brine are
another story.The Sriracha brine was also used to
pickle something I had never tried, or even heard of, before: Kohlrabi, picked
fresh from my coworker's garden.

Fieriness aside, the first bite reminded
me of a cabbage heart. Indeed, kohlrabi, whose name is a combination of the
German words for cabbage and turnip--coined, most likely, during the reign of
Charlemagne around 800 A.D. when he ordered the vegetable to be grown in
Aachen--originates from wild cabbage. So do broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and
collard greens.

Kohlrabi, however, is milder and sweeter
than its bitterer relatives, broccoli and cauliflower. This might be why it may
be easier to eat raw, something I have found impossible with the latter two and
Brussels sprouts, also in the same family as kohlrabi.